She'll Wish She'd Stayed
by darksideofnight
Summary: "I want to be just like my mommy when I grow up!" Collection of one shots about mother-child relationships, so far including Maka and Liz
1. Chapter 1

It was a common misconception that Maka Albarn hated her father. Well, it wasn't _quite _untrue. She'd be the first to point out her father's terrible womanizing, irresponsible habits. But, then, he was with her, right? And wasn't that what parents were supposed to be?

She always said that she wanted to be just like her mother, and turn Soul into a great death scythe. Which she definitely wanted to do, of course…but be like her mother? She wasn't certain why she said that all the time. The older she got, the more obvious to her it became: her mother had abandoned her, and wasn't ever going to come back. No matter how great and strong Spirit said she was, she hadn't been strong enough to do the one thing Maka cared about, had she? Stayed with her. Instead, she left her with her irresponsible father, and never made contact again.

She knew she didn't have the worst family situation of her friends. Black*Star was an orphan, Liz and Patti had grown up on the streets, Tsubaki hadn't gone home much since her brother had died, Crona's mother was _psycho_, Soul never talked about his family, and never visited, and Kid had no mother. Still, though, she thought she'd rather have no mother than have one that had rejected her. She knew it shouldn't bother her, that she had plenty of people in her life that loved her, but it did.

Truthfully, in some small part of her brain, her father's obsessed antics made her feel cynically humorous. How ironic that the one parent who had stayed still felt the need to strive so hard for her affection, while the other couldn't care less.

But, she supposed, she didn't need her mother. She had her father, and her friends, after all. She would become better than her mother. Stronger, so that someday, her mother would wish to hell that she'd stayed. But then, she knew, (and always thought with an angry smirk,) it would be far too late for any affection then. It was mean sounding, even to her. But that was what abandonment made her feel. It hurt her pride, so she'd take revenge. Next time, maybe, her mother would put someone else's needs before her own.

A/N: I hope you like this, because I question Maka's devotion to someone who pretty much ditched her with the very same man who drinks constantly and cheats. I seriously question how any character in Soul Eater can say a single good thing about Kami Albarn. Please review! Even if it's only to say it was average, I like reviews!


	2. No matter how bad you feel

Liz didn't think about her mother much. She didn't have much to think about. She hardly remembered anything of the woman, perhaps the faint smell of alcohol and drugs from an early time in her life. What had triggered her musing today was another of Maka's announcements that she was going to be just like her mama. She said it a lot after her father had been, well…being himself. What would she be like if she was just like her mother? Probably some drugged out hooker, still living on the streets. It made her feel a little ashamed sometimes, but she was too independent to let something like that bother her for very long. The only family she needed now was Patti and Kid.

She could remember times when she had had to take care of Patti all alone that she had been furious with the nameless, faceless woman that their mother had become. It wasn't fair that her and Patti (especially Patti, she thought,) had to live all alone in the cold and pain like this. But then Kid had come. And in her new life, old resentment had been forgotten, until she could muster nothing more than sadness and pity at what had probably become of her parent's life. Because that's what it was. It was sad that anyone had to live like her and Patti had been living, fighting for every second they lived, and not knowing how they would eat or where they would sleep the next day.

She didn't think anyone should have to live like that. And what made her feel worst of all was what if? What if their mother had met someone like Kid, who had fixed her life? And what if Kid had never come along? She would certainly be more like her mother, then. She would probably be dead and Patty along with her. She wondered if her mother would be proud of her. But, standing up from her place on the couch, she brushed the thought away. Her mother was as good as dead, and her daughters had other responsibilities now. It was as simple as that. No matter how bad anyone feels, it doesn't change what happened.

A/N: This was Liz's chapter. I probably won't write one for Patti for a while, because I have others I want to get to first, but I will write one for her. Next might be Black*Star or Kid.


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